Portland’s Charter Schools Whiter Than Its Public Schools

Most Portland charter schools are significantly whiter than traditional public schools in the Portland Public Schools (PPS) district, according to an analysis by GoLocalPDX.

During the 2013-2014 school year 56.8 percent of all students in the PPS district were white, while 68 percent of students in PPS charter schools were white, according to data from the Oregon Department of Education.

In the 2013-2014 school year Hispanics made up 15.6 percent of all students in the PPS district, and 10.5 percent in charter schools. There were twice as many African-American students in traditional public schools as charter schools.

The statistics represent seven out of the eight charter schools in the Portland School District and exclude Self Enhancement Inc. Academy, a school that caters to racial minorities, specifically African-American, who make up 83.6 percent of the student body.

Intent of Charter Schools

Charter schools are independent nonprofit organizations overseen by the public school district. Each school administers itself and can hire non-union teachers. Charters are funded by taxpayer dollars and usually bolster those funds with grants and other donations.

Charters are supposed to offer an alternative to traditional school teaching methods and curriculum. Proponents say the schools give parents educational choice. Opponents say they drain public coffers, undermine the teacher’s union and siphon kids from traditional public schools system.

In Oregon, charters were part of a national movement that started in the mid-1990s. The intent was to provide educational options to poor and minority children living in failing school districts, according to state Rep. Lew Frederick, a former Portland Public Schools spokesman.

Frederick's district, which includes North and Northeast Portland, was the center of the state's African-American population before a massive influx of white residents changed the neighborhood. He believes that charter schools can sometimes be used as part of an unspoken system of school segregation.

"The charter schools were set up to provide a place to go for parents who were dealing with poverty," Frederick said. "Charter programs can be very effective if parents are looking at an alternative to traditional education, but not if they are primarily used as a way of separating out particular people.”

SEI Academy in North Portland

Enrollment Challenges

Nationally, African-Americans made up 29 percent of charter school students, followed closely by Hispanics at 28 percent in the 2011-2012 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Despite the fact that the city of Portland is becoming more diverse - the city was 91 percent white in 1990 compared with 76 percent white in 2010 - the student population in core neighborhood schools, both traditional and charter, is getting whiter.

The white population has grown by 1.4 percent at traditional public schools and by almost 2 percent at charters in the last five years.

At charter schools the African-American population has declined by more than half. In the 2008-2009 school year the African-American population comprised 11.5 percent of charter school student population, but that percentage fell to just 4.9 percent for the 2013-2014 school year.

The only minority population that increased in enrollment in both traditional and charter schools was Hispanics.

Portland-area educators say diversifying classrooms is a challenge.

Debi Lorence is a former board member of the League of Oregon Charter Schools. Lorence said that charter schools enroll students on a first-come, first-served basis, which makes it hard to prioritize diversity.

"Our hands are tied in so many of these situations," Lorence said.

Lorence founded the Multi-Sensory Instruction Teaching Children Hands-on - or MITCH - Charter School in Tualatin in 2002. She said as the school principal she had a hard time recruiting minority families to the program.

"I so badly wanted to show the district that I could take any kid from any background and skyrocket them," Lorence said. "I wanted to see the most beautiful colors in my school, but it's all about whoever signs up first."

A Priority For Some

Christine Miles, PPS public information officer is not an expert on the district charter schools, but said that racial equity is a top priority for PPS. However, the district only sponsors charter schools and doesn't run them.

"It's up to each charter school if diversity is part of their mission," said Miles.

Since SEI Academy was founded 10 years ago, the school has worked hard to recruit and do outreach to minority parents, according to founder Tony Hopson.

"It's specifically African-American kids that we want to serve most, but we are designed to be a school that is open to everybody," Hopson said. "Most charter schools are not doing that, they aren't intentional about reaching out to minorities."

Many minority families are just less aware of their charter school options than middle-class white families, according to Hopson.

"I know there is a greater number of white parents who know about the system," Hopson said.

For Hopson, it comes down to making accommodations that make it easier for minorities to enroll. For example, transportation to and from school can be a major issue for many of SEI’s students, so SEI Academy provides free bus passes.

Emerson Charter School in downtown Portland

In 2010, Emerson Charter School was 72.6 percent white, but that number has dropped nearly 20 percent since then. For the 2013-2014 school year Emerson was 54.2 percent white.

Emerson has largely focused on reaching out to minorities in recent years, according to the school's principal, Tara O'Neil.

"We started by advertising Emerson just through word of mouth, but we weren't aware that was going to be a problem," O'Neil said. "Through word of mouth, only parents who are really plugged in are going to know about the school, so now we really make an effort to reach out to minorities."

O'Neil said that about five years ago the school started doing active recruitment and outreach in underserved and low-income communities, and at programs like HeadStart.

"We want to get the word out to people who aren't automatically plugged in and let them know about what Emerson has to offer," O'Neil said.

O’Neil felt traditional schools have their challenges with diversity as well.

"The district has some schools that are almost all white or almost all black,” O’Neil said. “Only some schools have that perfect balance, and that's what we struggle with."

Related Slideshow: Top 100 Oregon High Schools

GoLocalPDX has ranked high schools across the state based on a method developed at Babson College, Mass. See below for the top 100 schools in the Beaver State.